Restlessness.

My father's agitation has been increasing lately and he rarely pauses from fiddling with his reading glasses. So much so I thought he may break them as he grabs them, unfolds them puts them on his face, takes them off straightaway, folds in the arms, opens them up, puts them on his face, takes them off, folds them, struggles to put them back in the case before redoing these actions in varying order.

I observed all this and told him to be careful but that was it. He continued and did not listen to me. It concerned me but I did not take any further action to discourage him.

My unease about his agitation overshadows the possibility of his actions, that is possibly breaking his glasses. However, his nurse has more experience of caring for the elderly and infirm and she gave him something unbreakable to manipulate. When we arrived yesterday, my father was very restless once again but this time I noticed his glass case was out of reach on his table.

Instead, he had a material eye mask in his hands. He was constantly picking it up, struggling to put it on his head, rarely actually managing to place it over his eyes, putting it down on the bed...calm for 15 seconds before faffing again and picking it up, placing it on top of his head, taking it off... [Similar actions as he had done with his glasses. The up down movement with both arms like a robotic machine.] This activity continued for the whole visit.

I mentioned this to the nurse and thanked her for giving him the eye mask as I had been concerned that he would break his glasses. She had felt the same way.

The irony of him being given an eye mask to calm him down and shut out his present world rather than him having his glasses to see his environment is not lost on me. Especially at this time of his life.